Amnesty: We fought, protected President Buhari’s human rights

The embattled human rights organization, Amnesty International, AI, at the weekend, reminded President Muhammadu Buhari, and others of protecting their human rights from being abused when they were victimized and oppressed some years ago under military regime.

This was made known by the Chairman, Board of Amnesty International, Nigeria, Auwal Ibrahim Musa, popularly known as (Rafsanjani), in a telephone chat with newsmen.

Rafsanjani also warned political office holders that they could be oppressed when they leave office by another political class because they would not be in power forever.

He said: “We cannot keep quiet because if we all keep quiet it will come to each individual and all, and if we don’t speak out definitely we will be in trouble. We have to constantly remind them that they cannot continue to do this.

“These are people we also fought for their rights and like Punch Newspaper also did the analysis on how all these characters, what Amnesty International did for their situation when they were been victimized including President Muhammadu Buhari.

“It is just that they have short memory and they have forgotten today that they will leave power tomorrow and they can become victims of another political class and that is why organizations like ours which are not political, religious and not having any ulterior motives rather than protect the rights of everybody they want to attack us for that you are just doing harm to yourself because tomorrow you will discover that you will become victim of the same political class because Nigerian politicians witch hunt one another; today victim tomorrow they maybe the oppressor that is how it is with Nigerian political class and tomorrow they will now be looking for who to protect them.”

He further stated and maintained that, “We must sustain and continue with this effort. Some of us have been involved in this for the past 25 years, and anybody who knows us know we have been at this.

“So no shaking and no blackmail can stop us from doing what we are doing. People tell me to be careful and I said let them kill me and if they kill me I know I have not died a waste but I know have died for a course helping humanity. So if they like let them do that.”

He also added that, “We faced the military regime so why can’t we face this civil government. I can’t imagine how we have waged war against military dictators and now I will keep quiet for what? Is not possible.”

Meanwhile, according to him more sanctions will be meted out to some political office holders as some are being denied visas while others who have been issued visas unknown to them their visas are cancelled by the American Government.

“International bodies are set to issue their statement on this development and globally people are aware of what is going on and they are condemning it and this will be of great interest in the next coming days and if the state continues with this I can assure you that some officials will face sanctions.

“Already the American government is cancelling and denying visas to some of these corrupt people who are also perpetrating violence. Some of them are not aware that their visas are cancelled. So a lot of sanctions are likely to going to happen”, he said.

Lamenting the poor condition of protesters he described as ‘victims of corruption’ said nobody with legitimate work would engage in such venture to survive.

“The protesters are victims themselves who they pay N500 or N1, 000 to come and do this and poverty imposed on them by the state and is the same state that is giving them the same money to come and protest, and it is really sad because nobody who has legitimate doing will go and do this protest”, he stated.

Recent Stories

Nigeria’s representatives in the CAF Confederation Cup, Rangers International F.C are full of optimism of qualifying for the next round of the competition despite suffering a 2-1 loss to debutants, A.S Pelican in a first-leg, first round tie in Libreville.

The real reason why the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, declared a state of emergency in the three northern states of Adamawa, Yobe and Borno State without removing the governors and the local government chairman has now been made public by the former Attorney General, Mohammed Adoke.

Former Nigerian minister of foreign affairs Professor Bolaji Akinyemi Sunday called on the Nigerian Government to drag South Africa to the International Criminal Court of Justice for the xenophobic attacks that claimed the lives of Nigerians.

Twitter

Most Popular

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) a few days ago concluded its governorship primary in Bayelsa State, won by Douye Diri, a senator who is backed by the incumbent governor of the state, Seriake Dickson.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), under the auspices of The Tax Justice and Governance Platform, (TJGP) have called on the federal government to concentrate more efforts on ensuring the proper collection of appropriate taxes than increasing the Valued Added Tax.